Chapter 04

Jun-gyeong opened his eyes to morning sunlight for the first time in a thousand years and headed straight for the bathroom.
As the hot water softened the hardened blood and washed it away, he felt refreshed. He wiped the water and steam from the mirror.
Looking at his reflection, he frowned and shook his head.

“I don’t like the body or the face.”

His height was similar to what it had been in his previous life, but his face and body were completely different.
Jun-gyeong was thoroughly dissatisfied with these finer features, so unlike the rugged, strongly defined face he once had.
The real problem, however, was his body.
He knew that just like one’s face, one’s physique depended heavily on what one was born with.
It wasn’t a body laden with fat, but neither was it naturally suited to building muscle.
Its frame itself was slender, and even its muscles were naturally small.
That didn’t mean he could give up on it.
He knew that the life awaiting him in the mortal world would be no more peaceful than his previous one had been.

“This will take a while.”

Jun-gyeong kneaded his thighs and arms experimentally, then shook his head and left the bathroom.
The body might have been born slight and lean, but if he consumed as much nutrition as possible and pushed it relentlessly to its limits, he should eventually be able to shed this feeble state.

He immediately dropped to the floor and began exercising.
He had barely done any push-ups before sweat poured off him like rain and his arms began to tremble violently.

“Huff… Huff…”

He was already gasping for breath, but he didn’t stop.
To surpass his limits, he first had to know exactly where they were.
Eventually his arms reached their limit and gave out beneath his body weight.
Sweat pattered onto the floor, followed by his face.

“Huff… Damn this body. Huff…”

Ding-
From the bedside table in the distance came the sound of his smartphone.
His eyes shifted toward it, but his body didn’t move.
No, he couldn’t move.

Ding- Ding-
The message alerts kept chiming without pause.
Jun-gyeong turned his head away and closed his eyes.

Bam! Bam! Bam-bam-bam~ Bam~
At last, instead of another message alert, the phone began to ring.

“Haah… Damn this body. I don’t even have the strength to move.”

Bam! Bam! Bam-bam-bam~ Bam~ Bam! Bam! Bam-bam-bam~ Bam~

After ringing for quite some time, the smartphone finally went silent.
Jun-gyeong remained lying there for a while longer, then slowly pushed himself up once some strength returned to his body.
Then he made his way toward the smartphone.

-Jade Rabbit Ok-hee - Missed Calls (3)-
-Jade Rabbit Ok-hee - Messages (12)-

He picked up the phone, checked the screen, and tapped the missed-call notification.

Bam! Bbarabarabam~!

Bright, cheerful music began playing, followed immediately by Ok-hee’s voice.

-Why aren’t you answering your phone?! …sir.
“I was busy.”
-Huh? Busy? What could someone who just climbed out of Hell possibly be busy with… sir? Do you have plans? Maybe a date with Ms. Hye-ju… sir?
“What do you want?”
-…
“If there’s nothing, I’m hanging up.”
-No… I…

Click-
Jun-gyeong tossed the smartphone onto the bed and headed out onto the rooftop.
Standing outside, he looked down at his empty hands with regret.
There was nothing in them.

“I could use a sword.”

For a moment, he regretted not bringing even the sashimi knife with him.
In his previous life, every training session had begun and ended with swinging a sword.
No. Training itself had meant swinging a sword.
His muscle memory was gone, but the knowledge remained intact in his mind, and now he desperately missed his sword, Mukhwa.

The memory of swinging a sword thousands, tens of thousands of times.
He decided to trust in that.
He picked up a broom leaning forlornly against one side of the rooftop railing and began slowly swinging it.
His movements caught awkwardly here and there, but Jun-gyeong continued without resting.
His muscles and tendons refused to move as he wished, and after roughly an hour his entire body creaked with strain while sweat poured down his exhausted face like rain.

“…Huff. I need to get my hands on some kind of sword, at least.”

The battles he would fight in the mortal world would probably not be wars like those of his past.
Even if he could not have anything comparable to Mukhwa, he felt he would be more at ease with at least a blade like the sashimi knife he had held yesterday.
Drenched in sweat, he trudged wearily back toward the rooftop room.

He returned to the bathroom and organized his thoughts as hot water washed the sweat from his body.

“There’s nothing complicated about it. Punish evil spirits and the humans who aid them with the power to break demons. And help souls burdened by grievances.”

Jun-gyeong closed his eyes beneath the stream of water pouring from the showerhead.
Until he had completely purged and cleansed the blood-soaked karmic sins of his previous life, he could not meet Seol-hui.
For Seol-hui alone, he had to carry out the rules of this vast hunting ground to perfection.

It didn’t matter what her name was now or how her face had changed.
He would tear apart every monster in the world and resolve the grievances of every wronged soul. He would lift that veil and hold her in his arms once more.
That was the one and only reason Jun-gyeong had accepted Heavenly King Chiwoo’s request, left Hell behind, and walked into the mortal world of his own accord.

Having settled his thoughts, he left the bathroom and picked up the smartphone he had tossed onto the bed.

-Jade Rabbit Ok-hee - Missed Calls (8)-
-Jade Rabbit Ok-hee - Messages (21)-

He opened the missed-call list again and tapped Ok-hee’s number.

Bam!

Ok-hee answered the instant the music began.
She spoke between labored gasps.

-Huff, hah… I’m almost there… sir. Just wait a minute… sir.
“Huh…? Almost there?”
-Why do you live… so high up… sir? Hah… Ah, I’m dying here.

Jun-gyeong’s eyes widened as he turned toward the wide-open entrance.
From beyond it came a clattering sound from the metal staircase.

“Understood. Wait on the rooftop for a moment.”
-Hoo~ Okay~ sir.

Jun-gyeong got dressed and stepped outside.
Ok-hee was half-reclining on the wooden platform, propped up on her arms as the breeze cooled her sweat.

“Wow~ I thought I was going to die climbing up here, but the view is nice… sir. You can see all of Seoul from here. Is that the Han River way over there… sir?”

Jun-gyeong searched through his memories, but he couldn’t tell what the distant river was.
Apparently Han Jun-gyeong had never known for certain either.

“I don’t know.”

Ok-hee rose to her feet and turned to face Jun-gyeong.
Then she bowed at the waist.

“Sorry… No. My apologies.”

Jun-gyeong looked at her in confusion.

“What are you apologizing for?”
“I briefly forgot that you’re not accustomed to modern technology. I wasn’t trying to pressure you into answering the phone, but that’s what it turned into. I’m sorry.”

At her answer, Jun-gyeong glanced at the smartphone in her hand.
He possessed the knowledge to use one, but it was still unfamiliar to him.
She was probably referring to the call he had abruptly ended earlier.

“The phone… I see. So it was something I should have paid more attention to. My apologies. I didn’t know.”
“No, not at all. If anything, being obsessed with this thing is the bigger problem. I was the one thinking about it the wrong way. It’s only a convenient tool, yet we act as though we can’t live without it. Anyway!”

Ok-hee beamed as she continued.

“You haven’t eaten yet, have you?”

Only then did Jun-gyeong seem to realize he hadn’t eaten, and he touched his stomach.

“…No.”
“Then let’s go get something to eat. I checked, and they don’t even deliver up here.”

That was probably why Han Jun-gyeong had left the sink unused and eaten all his meals outside.
After all, carrying groceries all the way up this hill would have been a chore in itself.
Ok-hee continued.

“I also have something to give you before we start work. Get changed and come out.”
“…Clothes?”

Jun-gyeong looked down at what he was wearing.
His pants were blue sweatpants, and he wore a black shirt on top.
On his feet were black dress shoes he had carelessly shoved on.

“Well, you’ve got the build to pull off that kind of mismatch, but there’s no point drawing strange looks from people. And try to keep your front door closed from now on. No matter how good your body looks, leaving everything on display like that is… a little…”

Ok-hee’s face reddened slightly.

“Wear something like yesterday. Slacks and a shirt should be fine. We’re meeting a client this evening.”

Jun-gyeong grew even more confused.

“What do you mean, a client?”
“Ah, I got way ahead of myself. I’ll explain over lunch. Clothes first.”
“Understood.”

Jun-gyeong went inside, changed, and came back out.
He wore black slacks and a white shirt, much like what he had worn on his first day.
Ok-hee nodded in satisfaction.

“See? You’ve definitely got the build for clothes! Good~ Very nice. This’ll draw attention in its own way too, but hey, that’s an advantage. Okay! Let’s go.”

Jun-gyeong, who did not fully understand what she meant, drew his brows together.

For a late breakfast and early lunch, the two headed to a samgyeopsal¹ restaurant.
To Jun-gyeong, meat usually meant well-dried jerky, or jerky softened by briefly boiling it in water whenever there was time during battle.
Of course, when a war ended and he returned home, he would eat high-quality fresh pork that had been boiled, but this was his first time having meat grilled like this.

“Pork is good cooked this way too. It’s delicious.”
“Eat as much as you like~”

Ok-hee smiled brightly as she diligently flipped the meat.
Once the meat was nicely browned, she placed it on Jun-gyeong’s plate, and he quietly asked,

“Aren’t you eating?”
“I prefer greens. I’m not a vegetarian, but meat just doesn’t taste very good to me. So don’t worry about me and eat as much as you want.”

Jun-gyeong nodded.
Seol-hui had been the same in his memories.
It wasn’t that she never ate meat, but whenever she served him boiled pork, she would simply smile and watch him eat.
She would say that just watching him eat made her feel full.
Something suddenly surged up inside him.
To force it back down, Jun-gyeong made an enormous wrap and stuffed it into his mouth.

Ok-hee smiled brightly and continued.

“We have feelers out everywhere to gather information on monsters and evil spirits. We monitor the news, read stock-market rumor sheets, and even take reports directly from people dealing with strange situations. Some of those requests involve exorcisms, others involve psychiatric symptoms. We get all kinds.”
“You work hard.”

Jun-gyeong nodded with his mouth full of meat.

“Among them, beings have started appearing that we can’t touch.”

Ok-hee’s brow furrowed deeply.

“There aren’t many, but they started appearing in earnest last year. And I mean it literally when I say we can’t touch them. Talismans don’t work, and sorcery can’t affect them either. We think it has something to do with things crossing dimensional rifts. Anyway, all you need to do is eliminate them.”
“…If they’re beings you can’t even affect, what makes you think I can?”
“Heavenly King Chiwoo trusted you enough to send you here, so there must be something different about you. You’re the only being with a human body and a divine soul. Of course you can.”

Jun-gyeong nodded as he chewed a mouthful of wrapped meat.
Ok-hee chuckled at the sight and continued.

“Now then~ Our client this time is Yang Seung-ho, the youngest son of Samo Group.”
“Samo? As in the bird of the sun, the crow with three legs?”
“Yes. That Samo. Yang Seung-ho is the youngest prince of Samo Group, currently Korea’s number-one conglomerate, and the CEO of Samo Department Store, Samo Hotel, and Samo Construction. He’s the client for this job. You need money, don’t you? This request came at exactly the right time.”
“…I do need money.”

Ok-hee took a sip of water before continuing.

“It’s an exorcism request that came through a shaman, and the location is Hannam-dong². Once we get there, you’ll naturally find out what the problem is, my dear client.”
“Client?”
“Yes. I take an upfront cut of the commission as my referral fee, which makes you my client. We should help each other out, shouldn’t we?”

Jun-gyeong nodded.

“Then are we leaving now?”
“No. There’s somewhere we need to stop first. If you’re going to hunt monsters, you’ll need a weapon.”

Ok-hee’s eyes sparkled.
Jun-gyeong felt a vague sense of unease, but he had been wanting a decent sword anyway, so he nodded.

“A decent sword would be useful.”
“You can look forward to it, my dear client.”

One of Ok-hee’s eyebrows rose along with the corner of her mouth.